1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a plasma display panel and a method of fabricating the same, and in particular, to a plasma display panel having barrier ribs arranged in a dense formation, with uniformly formed surfaces and a method of fabricating the same.
2. Discussion of Related Art
FIG. 1 shows a cross-sectional view of a conventional plasma display panel. Referring to FIG. 1, a plasma display panel, which displays pictures using gas discharge, includes two flat panels, a front substrate 1 and a back substrate 2, respectively. The edge portions of the substrates are sealed, and a large amount of gas is contained between the two substrates having a predetermined distance therebetween. Anodes 3 are formed on the inner surface of the front substrate 1 and cathodes 4 are formed on the inner surface of the back substrate 2. The anodes 3 and cathodes 4 are formed in a strip arrangement, and arranged in perpendicular fashion to each other. Barrier ribs 5 are formed on the front substrate 1 between anodes 3, to define the pixels of a plasma display and prevent crosstalk between neighboring pixels.
The resolution of the aforementioned plasma display panel depends on the inner structure between the front and back substrates, the kind of gas contained between the substrates, the shape and material of the cathode, and the degree of flatness of the barrier rib's surface coming into contact with the front substrate. In particular, the degree of flatness of the barrier rib's surface is crucial, because the barrier rib prevents the diffusion of light between neighboring pixels when they are discharged during the operation of the display panel.
Methods of forming the barrier rib include a screen printing method, a transfer method, and a sand blasting method.
With the screen printing method, a substrate is covered by a mask, a mucous material is then coated thereon and a burning process is carried out, to thereby form the barrier rib. The screen printing may be performed several times in order to control the height of the barrier rib. It is, however, difficult to form the barrier rib with great accuracy over a wide panel using the screen printing method because the mesh used in forming the mask can be warped.
In case of the transfer method, a mask pattern is formed on a substrate, and a material used for barrier ribs is continuously coated on the pattern, to thus form the barrier ribs. This method cannot be applied in the manufacture of SVGA HDTV display panel due to limits in pattern resolution.
With the sand blasting method, a material for barrier rib is uniformly coated on a substrate, and a protective layer acting as a mask is then formed on the barrier rib material. Next, the exposed portions of the barrier rib material are removed using a sand blaster and the protective layer is afterwards removed to thus form the barrier ribs. In this method, however, as the hard small grains used by the sand blaster strongly collide with the barrier rib material in order to cut the unnecessary portions, the small grains also strongly collide against the protective layer with such a force that portions of the protective layer are displaced against the surface of the barrier rib causing damage. Thus, a uniform surface of the barrier ribs is not obtained.
Accordingly, for the purpose of easily cutting the portions without damaging the protective layer or anode and cathode electrodes, new electrode material and protective layer material needs to be developed.